Comments on: Guardian 24916 / Brendan

By: Brendan

Brendan — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:36:26 +0000

Having just told someone at the Farmers market on Saturday that if she wanted a move up from the Irish Times cryptic then she should look out for Rufus on Monday in the Guardian, what do we get only Brendan. Misdirection apart, I was quite pleased as it was my birthday yesterday and I always get a simple childish pleasure in bringing in Brendan to the wife at breakfast. I spent a while on the phone last night to my friend Paul, and what do I have this morning only …

We finished it all, romano apart, despite being reasonably cheese savvy and the wife having a pinny with Italian cheeses depicted thereon.

By: Dave Ellison

Dave Ellison — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:28:08 +0000

I imagine everyone did notice, but perhaps it is worth noting the periphery alternated wine and cheese

By: IanN14

IanN14 — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:26:58 +0000

Oh, I was so right about today’s Independent…

By: sandra

sandra — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:17:16 +0000

mike m #29 thanks for your good wishes

By: Mr Beaver

Mr Beaver — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:49:44 +0000

Derek (@26) – “not being a cheese person” – more of a whine person perhaps ?
Sorry, couldn’t resist..

By: IanN14

IanN14 — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:54:54 +0000

As I’ve said here many times, I’m a big fan of Brendan/Virgilius’s work, and this was no exception for the tidiness of the clues and the surfaces (apart, perhaps from 21ac., but I’d already got 16d, so didn’t even notice).
My only *slight* personal comment (not a complaint, just to appease those who frown on that sort of thing) is that I would have preferred it to be a bit more tricky.
I imagine that’s why it was placed on a Monday? (Nice change from Rufus, though, as has been said here).
It was just that all the themed answers (apart from Graves) were defined as wine, cheese or the place of their origin, so the theme wasn’t difficult to get straight away, compared to, say, his fairly recent Presidents one.
Tomorrow’s Indy ought to be a Virgilius, so I hope it’s slightly more challenging.
(As I say, just a personal opinion. To paraphrase Sil, don’t burn the commenter)…

By: cholecyst

cholecyst — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:51:58 +0000

Sil, I must confess I’d never heard of Alicant wine, but I suspect in English this is now quite an old-fashioned word, see the following from:
Title Drinks Of The World
Author James Mew
Publisher Scribner & Welford
Year 1892

“Into this wine, as into some others, the Spaniards are wont to put roasted pears, under the conceit that thereby it is much improved in taste and rendered more wholesome. Hence arose the proverb El vino de las peras dalo a quien bien quiéras. Malaga Xeres is often known in England as the pale, gold, dry sherry,l as the wines of Alicant, Benicarlos, and Valencia are sold as a rich and fruity Port.”

What happy pre-EU days!

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:21:41 +0000

Thank you, cholecyst, to be honest I was rather convinced that the wine should be Alicante, so with an e. But as it is in Chambers, it must be right. Is it the same as, or the English word for what is known to me as Vino Alicante? Even the Spanish Wikipedia mentions the wine as Alicante(vino). But I don’t want to argue.
Still funny that both are hidden answers in the same clue.

By: cholecyst

cholecyst — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:33:24 +0000

Sil, as you might have guessed, Alicant is in Chambers.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:23:46 +0000

Unlike some others (the minority) we were completely on Brendan’s wavelength.
A crossword full of splendid clues (and above, wonderful surfaces) – too many to mention.

The only one we didn’t understand was HALF-NELSON (hyphenated?), but then we are both not into cricket at all – although we saw that there was no other way to look at it than Nelson being 111.

Just like Eileen (#10) and Andrew (#14) we had the choice between INSECURE and SINECURE. We even think that INSECURE fits the clue better, but because we knew that 16d had to be ALICANT, a decision was quickly made.

Yes, ALICANT. I am not sure whether this is right or not. Googling leads only to Vino Alicante. Of course, the region is also known as Alicant, but the wine?
The funny thing is that ALICANTE is also hidden in the clue, so maybe it is even a little mistake by Brendan. Maybe he took the wrong word out of his database.
BTW, the surface of the clue is, we thought, superb.

So, very good crossword, for me personally, somewhat spoilt by an overdose of hidden answers in the bottom half of the grid. Especially the combination 16d & 18d was a bit of a shame, good though the clues are.
On the other hand, 20d (HUMERI) was not so very good, because too obvious.

But these are all minor quibbles.
Fine crossword, not even very difficult (so rather apt for a Monday).